The hard conversation about flat-faced dogs

There are few dogs as adored right now as the flat-faced breeds. The French bulldog’s bat ears and snuffly charm, the pug’s wrinkled earnestness, the bulldog’s comic seriousness: these are the faces filling our feeds and, in many cases, our homes.

This makes the topic of the problems of the breeds a difficult one to tackle, but a new report has put numbers to something vets have been worrying about for years, and it deserves an honest look.

The RSPCA’s report, bluntly titled The Shape of Suffering, records a striking rise in flat-faced dogs coming into the charity’s care in Britain. The number of French bulldogs has climbed by 3800 percent over ten years. Pugs are up 192 percent, and various bulldog types by more still. The pattern behind the figures is consistent: people buy these dogs for their looks, then struggle with the health problems those same looks create, and some can no longer cope with the cost. Those are UK numbers, but nobody in South Africa should imagine we are exempt. These are among our most popular breeds too, and our vets already carry the same caseload.

Why the looks are the problem

The uncomfortable truth is that the features we find cutest are, quite often, the source of the suffering. Brachycephalic simply means short-skulled, and squashing a dog’s muzzle into a flat face does not remove the soft tissue that used to fill it. The soft tissue simply crowds into a smaller space, which is why so many of these dogs struggle to breathe. The condition has a name, brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome, or BOAS, and in its worse forms it means a life of laboured breathing, poor sleep, heat intolerance and, sometimes, expensive surgery simply to let the dog take in air. Add the bulging eyes prone to ulceration, the skin folds that harbour infection, and the spinal problems that come with some of these body shapes, and the picture is of a lot of dogs living with chronic, avoidable discomfort.

This is not only the view of one welfare charity. A large veterinary study of pug deaths in Australia, published last year, found that pugs died at a median age of just ten years, with their leading causes of death, airway obstruction, seizures and degenerative spinal conditions, being ones that are uncommon in dogs with a normal head shape. The authors were explicit that their findings support reform of breeding and showing standards to improve these dogs’ welfare and longevity (Wong et al., 2025). When the evidence and the welfare bodies are saying the same thing, we do need to listen.

The South African dimension

Two things make this especially pointed here. The first is our climate; heat is one of the greatest dangers to a flat-faced dog, because panting is how dogs cool themselves and a compromised airway makes panting far less effective. A South African summer is a genuinely risky environment for a dog that cannot breathe freely, and heatstroke in these breeds can be rapid and fatal.

The second is that the debate over what to do about it is live here too, and it is not one-sided. The Kennel Union of Southern Africa, our national registry, positions itself as a custodian of breed health and a champion of responsible breeding within the breed standards. It has been critical of blanket measures taken elsewhere, such as the Dutch decision to restrict registration of a dozen brachycephalic breeds, arguing that such bans punish the responsible breeders working to improve health while doing nothing about those who breed carelessly. Others, including the RSPCA and a growing number of vets, argue that the standards themselves need to change, and point to moves like the UK’s mandatory breathing tests for bulldogs and pugs at major shows as the direction of travel.

Both sides, it is worth noting, agree on the thing that matters most: that the health problems are real and serious. Where they differ is on the fix, whether to reform from within or to restrict from without. T

What this means for us

If you are thinking of bringing one of these dogs home, the single most useful thing you can do is let health outrank looks. Seek out a responsible, registered breeder who breeds for more open nostrils, a bit more muzzle and demonstrably healthier dogs, ask to see health testing including breathing assessment of the parents, and walk away from impulse buys, online bargains and imported ‘exotic’ colours, which are red flags for breeders who prioritise novelty over welfare.

If you are looking to adopt, breed-specific rescues exist here and are full of dogs who need exactly the home you can offer.

If you already share your life with a flat-faced dog, as many of us do, the aim is simply to help them live as easily as possible:

• Keep them lean, because every extra kilogram makes breathing harder.
• Avoid exercise in the heat of the day, and never leave them anywhere they can overheat.
• Keep skin folds clean and dry.
• Watch the eyes for signs of issues.
• Learn what your dog’s breathing looks like on a good day so you can spot when he is struggling.
• And, if breathing is noisy or laboured, have your vet assess it properly, because BOAS can be helped, and the earlier it is diagnosed the better.

Loving these dogs and wanting them to breathe more easily are not opposing positions, but rather the same thing. The point of a conversation like this is not to shame any of us for the dogs we adore and find cute, but to nudge all of us toward a future where that adorable face does not come at the cost of the dog behind it.

References

RSPCA (2026). The Shape of Suffering: ending the breeding of animals for extreme conformation. Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Wong, K., Williamson, P., Taylor, R.M. (2025). Demography and Causes of Mortality of Pugs Under Primary Veterinary Care in Australia. Veterinary Sciences, 12(3), 195. https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci12030195